Big Ben

6. Big Ben

I was sitting at my desk Monday morning when I heard Ben's boots coming up the hall. I turned around to see him and I gave him a smile and he smiled back at me.

"Hey," he said quietly. He put his hands in his pockets and shifted from side to side.

"Hi," I said with a smile.

"How was your weekend?" he asked.

"It was okay. I didn't really do anything special. How 'bout you?"

Ben shrugged. "Got home yesterday. Visited my mom. Did laundry."

I gave Ben his paperwork for the day.

"See ya later," he said.

"Bye."

I watched him walk down the hall, noticing again how nicely his butt filled his blue jeans. As he turned the corner, he caught me looking and I blushed and quickly looked away.

I was a couple minutes behind leaving my desk to go to lunch. When I walked into the break-room with my brown bag, I was overjoyed to see that Ben was already sitting at my table.

"Hi, Ben," I said as I sat down.

I pulled out my bologna and cheese sandwich and took a bite.

"You always eat the same thing," Ben said with a frown. "And not much of it. Here, I made this for dinner last night."

He pushed a small plastic container in front of me and gave me a plastic fork. I popped the top and steam escaped. There was a piece of homemade lasagna in it that he had warmed up in the microwave. He opened a much larger container for himself and dug in. I realized that he had brought the second small container just for me.

I was practically drooling as I took the first bite. "Oh my god, this is really super good. You made this?"

Ben shrugged. "Yeah. I like to cook when I get a chance."

I took another bite. "Mmm."

I looked up to see him watching me enjoy his lunch and he had a big smile on his face. I returned his smile with one of my own.

I asked him about the lasagna and he told me how he made it. It was his grandma's recipe.

We talked about his haul and he told me how screwed up and disorganized they were when he arrived. I apologized, but he said it wasn't my fault. All of my paperwork was perfect.

As he was talking, I stared into his bright emerald green eyes. He stopped talking and furrowed his brow at me. I realized that I was gawking at him and I got flustered and stammered and looked down at my mostly uneaten bologna sandwich. I picked at it and ripped a piece off and ate it.

By then it was time to get back to work, so I told him I'd see him later and walked back to my desk.

When 4:30 came around, I shut down my computer and turned off my cubicle lights. As I stood up, Mr. Boothe walked out of his office. He saw me and cleared his throat and hurried past me, going out of his way to not look at me.

I stopped by the bathroom and then walked outside to catch the bus. Ben was standing outside the door with his hands in his jeans pockets, wearing a worn black leather jacket.